Past of a Jewel Thief
by ERiN OPPEL
Summary: What made Rouge become a jewel thief in the first place?


_Just some speculation on Rouge's past, seeing as we don't really know a lot about it. Sorry if it seems long._

_Note: I do not own Rouge. She is copyrighted by SEGA and Sonic Team only._

Past of a Jewel Thief

It was a dry, summer night in a cozy house not very far from Mobotropolis. 5-year-old Rouge the Bat was fast asleep in her little bed. Her parents were asleep in the next room. You wouldn't expect anything out of the ordinary to happen on such a tranquil night, but you'd be wrong.

You see, Rouge had a normal childhood. Her parents were loving and kind. Her family was well-off. Rouge herself was very intelligent for her age, and quite independent. Being somewhat of a tomboy, she preferred exploring outside instead of playing indoors. Her favourite things to collect were rocks. She wasn't afraid of very much; she was actually quite brave. And she rarely cried.

Now, no one was sure how the fire had started, that night. But then again, no one had really bothered to find out. And according to the officials, no one made it out alive.

But Rouge did. In fact, she was the first in her family to even notice the fire. She woke up in the middle of the night to a crackling sound and a strange smell. She got out of her bed and went over to her closed door. She touched the doorknob, and jerked her hand back; the metal knob was hot. She looked down and noticed the orange glow and smoke that came from the crack under her door. Rouge backed away from her door to the wall farthest from it and thought about what she should do.

She realized quickly that the house was on fire, and the only way out was through her window. Unfortunately, her window was too high up for her to reach. Her parents hadn't finished teaching her how to fly yet, so that wasn't an option.

Before she could thinking about it too long, Rouge heard commotion from her parents' room and soon, her door was broken down by her mother. Rouge shielded herself from the gust of heat and smoke that blew into her room, and she felt herself being picked up by her mother. Rouge held onto her mother's shoulder with one hand, and onto her mother's jewel pendant necklace with the other hand.

"Close your eyes, Rouge." spoke her mother with forced calm. "Keep them closed and don't be scared."

Rouge wasn't scared. She felt that everything would be alright. She was sure that her parents would get her and themselves out safely. But that was only because she didn't know that bad things could happen in life. She closed her eyes anyway; the smoke was drying them out.

As she felt her mother rush her out into the hallway, Rouge heard a loud crash and her father called out. Rouge opened her eyes. "Daddy?" she whispered.

Her mother quickly put Rouge down but still held onto her. "Rouge, run outside and get far away from the house."

"But--"

"Do what I tell you. We'll catch up with you soon." As her mother quickly let go of Rouge and got up, her necklace snapped off and remained in Rouge's hand. Her mother then ran off to help her husband.

Rouge hesitated for only a second before running towards the front door. But when she saw it was engulfed in flames, she ran back to the hallway. The other exits were blocked by fire and fallen rafters. The smoke was getting as thick as clouds and Rouge was nearly choking on it. She kept close to the floor and shielded her eyes from the embers. She called out for her parents, but she didn't get any answers.

Now Rouge was getting scared. She could hardly see and breathe, and the heat of the fire was intense. The only part of the house that wasn't completely blocked by fire was Rouge's room, which is where she decided to go. Rouge crawled as fast as she could to her room and looked at her window again. Thinking fast, she grabbed a large rock from her collection and threw it at the window. The glass cracked, but was still in one piece. Rouge picked up the rock again and threw it a second time. This time, the window shattered. Rouge decided to climb her dresser so she could reach the window. She practically had to leap to reach it, but she managed to climb onto the window sill.

The only thing left to do was jump. Rouge glanced at the ground below her. Only then did she realize how high up she was. Would she be able to survive the fall? She looked back in her room and saw how quickly the fire had started to engulf it. She didn't have much of a choice. Clutching her mother's pendant in her hand, Rouge leaped off her window sill and spread her small wings.

She dropped at an angle quickly, but not as fast as if she had simply jumped. This way she glided slow enough for her to avoid injuries. Unfortunately, she hadn't perfected her landings, so she did a sort of tumble as she landed in the bushes. Rouge got up and tried to brush the leaves and twigs off her. Then she glanced back at her house and her eyes widened in horror. Her whole house was ablaze. Rouge wanted to see if her parents were ok, but she then remembered that her mother told her to get far away from the house. Rouge still believed everything would turn out alright, so she ran as fast as she could into the forest that was behind her house. And she didn't stop running until the fire and smoke were out of view.

Rouge woke the next morning beside a creek where she had washed herself after she ran from the burning house. She walked back home, but there was one problem: the house was no longer there. Instead, there was a black pile of remains from wood and furniture. A team of policemen were talking with each other and inspecting what was left of the house. Rouge kept her distance from them, hiding in the forest. But she was close enough to hear some of what they were saying. The policemen had thought that her whole family had died in the fire, and that it was probably caused by the dry weather, somehow. Rouge didn't want them to find her, so she stayed in the forest until all the policemen had left.

Once they had, Rouge emerged from the forest and walked over to the remains of her beloved home. She didn't find anything that she could salvage. Everything was gone. Even her parents. Rouge looked at her mother's pendant in her hand. The jewel was smooth and shiny, and the colours of it sparkled and swirled. It always had a hypnotic effect on Rouge. And when she realized that she would never see her parents again, she allowed herself to cry.

She didn't cry for long, however, as she knew crying wouldn't be very productive. Rouge put her mother's necklace around her neck and walked in the direction of Mobotropolis.

It was dark by the time she got there. She was amazed that she had even walked that far. Since there was no point in continuing at night, Rouge settled down in an alley. Even though it was summer, the night was cold. It didn't help that all Rouge was wearing were black shorts and a pink halter-top-like shirt. But the little white bat curled up behind a dumpster and soon drifted into sleep.

The next day, Rouge would realize her potential as a thief. It started when she woke up that she realized how hungry she was. She couldn't buy food because she had no money, so she wondered how she would be able to steal something.

As Rouge walked down the street, she ignored the odd stares the other animals were giving her and she concentrated on finding a food stand. The first target she saw was someone selling bread to a customer. Rouge walked slowly by the stand, watching out of the corner of her eye for an opportunity. Just as she had hoped, the buyer dropped some rings and bent down to pick them up. The seller also bent down to help pick up the rings. Rouge saw her chance and she snatched a small loaf of bread, then ran into a nearby alley. She waited a few seconds to see if she had been noticed, but when she saw that she hadn't, she sat down and began to eat. She only ate half of the loaf and decided to save the rest for later.

That was the first time Rouge ever stole something. She figured that if it was this easy to steal, she could steal everything she needed to live. Throughout the course of a few days, Rouge managed to steal a blanket, a pair of shoes, and a few fruits. She was getting the hang of things and was surviving well.

Then one day, Rouge decided to walk down the upper-class part of Mobotropolis, figuring that there'd be better stuff to steal there. She wasn't afraid to be seen out in the open because no one had suspected a young bat to be a thief. She walked by a fancy outdoor restaurant and felt a pang of envy. While all those fat, little kids stuffed their faces beside their filthy-rich parents, Rouge had to trudge the streets all by herself in search of her next meal. And nobody seemed to notice or care. It disgusted her.

She was so angry, that she bumped into a wealthy-looking female peacock by accident. Rouge didn't want to apologize, nor did she get a chance to because the peacock glared down at her in revoltion.

"You disgusting little rat, watch where you're going!" the peacock snapped, seeing Rouge's dirt-smeared face and clothes. She pointed to the alleys. "Go back to the dump where you came from!"

Rouge was of course infuriated, but she didn't respond or move. Instead, something on the lady peacock's finger had caught her eye. It was a ring with a large blue jewel on it. If revenge was on Rouge's mind (which it no doubt was), she would have swiped the ring. But that would have been too noticeable. A better idea came to her. Rouge screamed loudly and backed away from the peacock, pretending to be afraid. "No! You're not my Mommy! Leave me alone!" This caused several animals to look up and wonder what the commotion was about.

The peacock, who didn't want it to seem like she was the bad person, tried to shush Rouge up. She grabbed the little bat by the arm with one hand and used the other hand to cover Rouge's mouth. "Shut up, you little worm!" she hissed.

Rouge bit the finger with the ring on it and the peacock let go with a shriek. Then Rouge ran away as fast as she could back to the alleys.

The furious peacock examined the fang marks on her finger. "These better not be permenant." It was only after a few seconds that she realized her ring was gone.

Once Rouge had made it safely back to her hiding place, she spat the ring out of her mouth and cleaned it on her shirt. This was the first time Rouge had stolen a jewel. She was thinking about trading it in for some food, but as she watched it gleam in the sunlight that filtered through the rooftops, she felt very satisfied. She felt even. In fact, she liked the feeling so much that she wanted to do it again. But she figured that next time she tried to steal a jewel, her target might not be a gullible and defenseless pedestrian. If she was going to steal jewels, she needed to have fighting experience in case she had to be up against the police.

So Rouge taught herself how to fly and fight. It was mostly a trial and error experience because she had never fought anyone before. She spent most of her years practicing and training. What began as merely a way of survival had become a lust for satisfaction. She became greedy. By the time she was ten, she broke into a house and stole the family jewels. When she was fourteen, she robbed an entire jewelery shop. Once she found out that her mother's pendant was an imitation and had very little value, she traded it for food. At seventeen, Rouge was a professional treasure hunter. She never got caught for any of her thefts, but she was put on the wanted list. Rouge didn't mind that.

"Let the people know about me." Rouge had said to herself. "Let them know that I, Rouge the Bat, am not to be tempered with. I mean business. Whatever I want, I get. Because no one has ever been through what I've been through. If anyone deserves jewels, it's me. In fact, all the world's jewels SHOULD be mine. I won't let anyone stand in my way!"

And you know the rest after that. She was teleported to Earth along with Sonic and the others. She was finally caught by the government and payed to work as a spy and has been working for G.U.N. ever since.

I guess you could say now it wasn't really her fault. Rouge had been through a lot, and maybe she wouldn't have turned out to be a jewel thief if her parents had never died in that fire. We will never know.

The End

_But anyway, that's just my theory. I guess it's a little farfetched, but I was feeling creative. Thank you for reading and please review! I'll be posting another fic here soon. :)_


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